Orange Frangipane

Orange Frangipane. This is a delicious tart, with a crisp pastry base and soft, moist cake filling. Perfect with a cup of tea or serve warm as a dessert with some whipped cream or ice cream!

Orange Frangipane. What a delicious dessert this is!

We all like to eat a moist cake! This is actually a tart, which originated in France. There are references from as bar back as 1226, and one of the earliest recipes for this can be found in a 1674 cookbook. Unbelievable! Frangipane is the description used for the almond filling, which is mainly made up of, yep, you guessed it, almonds!

There are variations to frangipane, for example, in Belgium, it is called an Almond pastry tart, usually with a striped pattern on top made up of icing.
Some recipes fill the flan case with almond and then put say a 1 cm layer of chocolate over the top.

This orange frangipane recipe uses wonderful flavours of orange and sweet almond, and when combined, the taste is deliciously amazing!

The bite of the crispy orange zesty pastry, against the soft, moist almond filling, is also a lovely texture sensation.

I have also made a recipe up to show you how to make your own shortcrust pastry. Of course, you can buy the shop stuff, but this recipe is easy, cheaper and by far more tasty! You can make little flans, but make sure you adjust the cooking times. So go on, give it a go! Try out our orange frangipane a recipe, similar to what our ancient ancestors were crazy about!

We’ve got a couple more frangipane recipes if you’d like to see those too, you can find them all here, There’s a lovely lemon frangipane, an apple frangipane and a cherry frangipane. They’re all so delicious and frangipanes do freeze very well, so feel free to slice it into portions if you wish and freeze in slices so you always have a slice handy when you’re ready for a cup of tea and a slice in the afternoon!

TOP TIPS!
1. As with any pastry cases, if you are going to put a ‘wet’ filling in, then you will need to ‘bake blind’ first to stop the pastry from going soggy. No one likes a soggy bottom! I have some instructions in a link below to help you with this if needed.

2. You can use this recipe for Gluten Free by substituting the flour in the pastry & also the filling with gluten-free flour.

First things first! Get all your ingredients ready. I like to weigh out and put everything in order of adding into the recipe. If it’s all ready, you will whizz through the recipe and NOT forget anything!

Make The Pastry

1.*** If you are using a shop bought pastry case, skip to the FILLING instructions. Put the oven on to 190 C, 375 F, Gas 5

***Please note, when making the pastry, add the zest of ONE orange to the flour and follow the instructions as normal.

3. Grease your flan dish & make sure you grease up the sides too.

4. Place your rolled out pastry into your chosen dish. Make sure you gently push the sides around the dish and trim any excess pastry.

5. If you see any cracks or missing bits of pastry, use the excess from your trimming to patch these areas.

6. Now you will need to prepare the flan case to take the wet filling. You need to first ‘Bake blind’ the pastry. See here for more information. You need to bake blind for 20 minutes in the oven.

7. Place in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes (for a 23 cm, 9 inch dish). If using smaller cases, reduce the cooking time.

8. When ready, the flan case should look like the photo on the below left. Say about 70% cooked, and ready for the filling.

Part Cooked Pastry Case

9. Once you have baked blind your pastry, you need to get all your filling ingredients ready if you haven’t done so already.

The Bake Blind technique is used when you have a ‘wet’ filling or the filling cooks faster than the pastry. If you were to simply place the filling onto the raw pastry, the base would never cook properly resulting in a very soggy bottom!

This method is also used if you are putting a readily cooked filling in the flan case, such as a mousse or chocolate torte which doesn’t require any baking.

Make The Filling
10. Cream the butter and sugar until light in colour and fluffy. Slowly add the beaten eggs. If the mixture looks like it is starting to split, add a tablespoon of your ground almonds.

12. Spread the warmed jam/curd onto the base of your pastry. Add the cake mixture to the flan case.

13. Bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes. Test with a metal skewer. Stick it in the centre, if it comes out clean your frangipane is ready!

14. Leave to cool then turn out onto a dish.

15 Make yourself a lovely cup of tea and enjoy a slice of your tart.

We’d love to hear from you and what you thought of our orange frangipane recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Here are a few more lovely recipes using ground almonds. So delicious!

*** If you are using a shop bought pastry case, skip to the FILLING instructions. Put the oven on to 190 C, 375 F,Gas 5. Make your shortcrust pastry. ***Please note, when making the pastry, add the zest of ONE orange to the flour and follow the instructions as normal. Grease your flan dish & make sure you grease up the sides too.

Place your rolled out pastry in to your chosen dish. Make sure you gently push the sides around the dish and trim any excess pastry.

If you see any cracks or missing bits of pastry, use the excess from your trimming to patch these areas.

Now you will need to prepare the flan case to take the wet filling. You need to first 'Bake blind' the pastry for 20 minutes in the oven.

Place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes (for a 23 cm, 9 inch dish). If using smaller cases, reduce the cooking time.

When ready, the flan case should be about 70% cooked, and ready for the filling.

Once you have baked blind your pastry, you need to get all your filling ingredients ready if you haven't done so already.

Make The Filling

Cream the butter and sugar until light in colour and fluffy. Slowly add the beaten eggs. If the mixture looks like it is starting to split, add a tablespoon of your ground almonds.